Inkscape Extension to Render a Living Hinge

A living hinge is a way to make rigid materials like plywood and acrylic sheets flexible by making cuts in the material. The Living Hinge Inkscape extension is a project by Mark Endicott to automate the process of drawing the cut lines needed to form a living hinge. It is an extension to the popular SVG graphics program Inkscape.

Living Hinge Examples

The pattern of cuts in these hinges are typical of those used to make a living hinge.

The Extension

To install the extension in Inkscape two files are needed:

living_hinge.inx

living_hinge.py

Both are available from GitHub[1] in a zip file[2].

Both files need to be put in the Inkscape extensions directory. On Linux it is located somewhere like /usr/share/inkscape/extensions. On Windows you will find an inkscape/extensions directory in the program files directory. On Mac you're on your own.

Using the Extension

The extension is installed in the menu Extensions->Render->Living Hinge